The Unsettling, Enthralling Illustrations of Cezar Berje

The work of Cezar Berje straddles that difficult line between utterly absorbing and repulsive. In his illustrations, he uses his immense talents with color and detail to create portraits that warrant study. His projects for companies like Netflix and the Hangloose surf brand show how this sensibility can adapt. Berje has a particular knack for recontextualizing pop icons, absorbing them into his colorful, unsettling world.

The artist offers some insight on the above piece, “Torre,” in a statement: “The illustration evokes the symbology of the fragments, the fractions and the universe in disenchantment, populated by broken pieces and pieces,” the artist says, in a translated statement. “The ray rips the silhouette of the moon, just as it shows the fragility of the ice and the wings of the monarch moth, opposing the complexity of the human body.”